Apparatus for slicing organic tissue



Oct. 5, 1954 M. HERBAIN APPARATUS FOR SLICING ORGANIC TISSUE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 20, 1953 IZVENTOR.

HTTEIRHEH S,

Oct. 5, 1954 M. HERBAIN 2,690,699

APPARATUS FOR SLICING ORGANIC TISSUE Filed March 20, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 2 Ill-Ill lllLLl I I 4 IN V EN TOR.

BY 04 Kh n/Z FITTEIRNEH 3.

Patented Oct. 5, 1354 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR SLICING ORGANIC TISSUE Maurice Herbain, Paris, France, assignor to Usines Chnmiqucs des Laboratories Francais, Paris, France, a French body corporate Claims. 1

The present invention relates to apparatus for slicing organic tissues and similar substances, and more particularly to improvements on microtomes of the type described in my co-pending application Ser. 177,825, filed August 5, 1950, now Patent No. 2,680,992, issued June 15, 1954, of which this is a continuation-in-part.

In my application Ser. No. 177,896, I have described a method for hand-slicing thin specimens of organic tissues and like materials, wherein a piece of the material is held in position by mounting it in a chamber, the material is pressed against the back wall of the chamber while a small ortion thereof projects from the chamber, and the projected portion of the material is severed in the form of a thin slice.

Also described in the above application is an apparatus for carrying out this slicin method. This apparatus is a microtome comprising a support frame including two coaxial sleeves, two members each of which is adjustably held and guided in a respective one of said sleeves, one of said members being provided at one end thereof with a chamber for mounting thereon the material to be sliced, the other of said members having at one of its ends and facing said chamber a recess whose depth corresponds to the desired thickness of the slice to be obtained, a feed screw threadedly mounted in the first of said members for advancing the preparation to be sliced toward the recess in the other member, and a movable blade held in a blade holder reoiprocable in a cutting plane which is transverse to the support frame and lies between the ends of the two members to effect severance of the desired slice from the preparation.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved microtome of the above-described type, which is of simpler construction and which is more precise in operation.

In accordance with a principal feature of this invention, the microtome support is constituted by a tube-like or cylindrical member forming a rigid block.

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof given by way of example and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein Fig. l is a longitudinal section of a microtome according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section along line 2-2 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 shows the microtome in side elevation.

Referring now to the drawing, there is shown a base support for the microtome, comprising essentially a plate 5i carrying a central ver-- tical portion 52 which forms a right angle therewith. Plate 5| rests on sucking members 53 which enable the entire apparatus to be fixedly placed upon a fiat support such as a table. The suckin members are attached to plate 51 by means of bolt 55 and screw 55, for example.

The vertical portion 52 of the base support has a circular aperture 56 whereon there is fitted cylindrical support body or socket 57. Dlfiering from the corresponding member in the microtome or" the parent application, support body 52 is a piece of tube having an axis X--X. This tube is provided with a transverse slot 58 having a flat bottom 59. Socket 5! is fixedly mounted on portion 52 by means of screws in such manner, for instance, that bottom 59 of slot 58 is parallel to plate 5 I.

The entire outer periphery 6! of socket 5? is threaded. The interior of the socket is provided with threaded bores 62 and 63, respectively located at each side of slot 58 and bein coaxial with axis XX.

Sleeve member 63 is threadedly mounted in bore 62 and is locked in position by lock-nut 85. Forward portion 68 of sleeve t4 reaches into slot 58 and is formed with a central bore 6! which is provided over a certain part of its length beginning at portion 66 with longitudinal grooves 58 while the other part of its length toward the opposits end is threaded. The threaded part of feed screw 69 is mounted in this threaded part of bore 67. Feed screw 59 is provided with knurled knob ill by means of which it may be axially moved in bore 67. Flexible tongue H is soldered or otherwise attached to knob l0 and is arranged to cooperate with one of a series of longitudinal grooves 12 arranged on the cylindrical exterior of sleeve member 64 (see Fig. 3). As will be clear, each position of tongue H in a groove 22 on member G l corresponds to a certain axial position of feed screw 69 and will hold it in this position, thus determining the size of the chamber formed in the bore of member 65 in front of the end face 13 of feed screw 69.

Another sleeve member 14 is threaded into the bore 63 of socket 57 and is locked in position by clamp ring 15. Hollow cylinder ll is fitted into smooth bore IE with its collar abutting member :4. End face 78 of cylinder l! reaches into slot 58 and is provided with very shallow recess 19 whose depth corresponds very accurately with the desired thickness of the slices to be out. The cylinder 1'! has an end collar and is provided with 3 a number of slots 89 in its cylindrical portion. In each of said slots there is located a pressure jaw 8| having a frusto-conical interior face cooperating with a frusto-conical portion 82 of a pressure screw 83.

On either side of slot 56, there are screwed onto socket 51 a ring 8 3, fixed in position by screw 85, which is screwed into socket 51 and ring 84, and another ring 86 which is locked into position by lock-nut 81.

Finally, there is provided the movable blade holder 88 adapted to carry cutting blade 89. As shown in Fig. 2, blade holder 88 has a central cutout 98 whose width exceeds the diameter of the member 14, so that the blade holder may be freely moved into slot 58 despite the projection of member 75 into the slot. Blade 89 is mounted transversely in cut-out 90 by means of two screws 92 with fiat heads, which screws are located in respective recesses Si in holder 88. The blade is mounted so that its cutting edge 93 is slightly behind side 94 of the holder 88. Near its upper border, holder 88 is provided with stop or strip 95 adapted to engage the flat upper part 96 of ring 8 to limit the downward movement of the blade holder in slot 58.

First, rings 84 and 88 must be mounted on socket 5? in such manner that they will leave in slot 58 a passage equal in width to thickness d of blade holder 88 so as to assure a perfect guide for the holder. The ring 81. is permanently fixed by screw 85 in such manner that its flat portion 93 is located at the upper part of the apparatus and substantially parallel to base 59 of slot 58. Ring 85 is screwed onto socket 51 after holder 88 has been lowered into slot 58 and it is locked into position by means of nut or clamping ring 81 so that holder 83 can move freely but without play between the faces of rings 84 and 86.

The position of sleeve member 64 is adjusted by screwing it into socket 5! so that its end 65 is just touched by blade 89 when the blade holder is reciprocated between rings 84 and 85 after they have been adjusted as indicated above.

The microtome is now ready for use and is operated as follows:

The feed screw 69 is sufficiently unscrewed to form from end 58 in the bore 81 of sleeve member 64 and in front of the feed screw a chamber of sufficient volume to receive and hold a specimen or preparation which is desired to be cut into uniform thin slices.

The microtome is now lifted on the table by knob ill and placed thereon. Cylinder H is removed from bore 15, for which purpose the pressure jaws 8| are loosened by slightly turning screw 83.

A warm liquid which congeals at room temperature and does not change the specimen is thereupon poured through bore 16 into the above mentioned chamber. The specimen is then immersed. in the liquid which is permitted to cool around the specimen whereby it is held fixedly in said chamber.

The blade holder is then moved into slot 58 to permit cylinder TI to be correctly replaced in bore 16 so that its end 18 is in contact with blade Sleeve 14 is then adjusted very slightly so that there is obtained between face 56 of sleeve 65. and face '18 of cylinder 11 a space equal to thickness 1) of blade 89. Blade holder 88 is now removed from slot 58.

Preparation or specimen 95 held in the chamber of sleeve member an in front of feed screw 89 is 4 then advanced toward recess 19 of cylinder "H by turning knob 10. Longitudinal grooves 68 prevent the preparation from being rotated with the feed screw.

To effect severance of the slice, blade holder 88 is moved into slot 58 and reciprocated by the manual pressure of the operator. Blade 89 passes between faces 68 and 18 and severs from the preparation a thin slice of a thickness substantially equal to depth 0 of recess 19.

In order to remove the slice from the apparatus it is sufl'icient to turn screw 83 slightly so that the jaws 8| will be moved towards the interior and cylinder 1! will be removed from member M which need not be touched. Now it is only necessary to remove the slice from recess l9, unless it adheres to blade 89, in which case it can be detached therefrom after the blade holder has been removed from slot 58.

After blade holder 88 has been lifted either with or without the slice, cylinder '11 is put back into place by pushing it into sleeve 74 until its collar is in abutment therewith, which automatically positions recess 19 correctly. Cylinder fl is then looked in position by means of screws 83 and Bi. Knob i8 is then again turned to advance preparation into recess '19 and blade holder 88 is again introduced in slot 58 to out another slice, and this operation may be repeated indefinitely.

AS can be seen, the above described apparatus can be used in a manner similar to that described in the parent application. It is of strong construction and its support body 57 tends to resist deformation, nor can slot 53 be opened. Rings 24 and 86 form perfect guides for blade holder 83 without it being necessary to adjust the width of slot 58 exactly, which slot may be prefabricated with a width in excess of thickness a of the blade holder.

The placement and removal of cylinder H which carries the recess determining the thickn s of the slices is very simple since a slight turning of the screw 223 permits it to be locked in place or moved by the action of pressure jaws Bi.

Finally, the support base 5| with its sucking rembers 53 gives the apparatus perfect stability.

While the invention has been described in connection with a now preferred embodiment thereof, it not limited thereby and various changes and modifications thereof may occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1.. An apparatus for slicing a specimen of organic tissue and the like, comprising, in comb?- nation, a rigid socket-like support member having a transverse slot therein, a first member carried in said support member at one side of slot, said first member having a central bore, an axially movable feed element mounted on said bore and forming a chamber in the forward portion of the bore facing the slot, said chamber being adapted to hold said specimen, a second member carried in said support member at the other side of said slot and on axial alignment with the first member, said second member having an end face with a recess facing said chamsaid recess being of a predetermined depth corresponding to the thickness of the slice to be obtained, and cutting means comprising a blade holder of a thickness inferior to the width of said slot and a guide means for the transverse movement of the blade holder, said guide means comprising two rings mounted on the socket-like support member one on each side of said slot.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, whereon said cutting means is provided with stop means arranged to cooperate with one of said rings to limit the transverse movement of the cutting means.

3. A microtome for slicing a specimen of organic tissue and the like, comprising, in combination, a base support, a rigid socket having a transverse slot and a longitudinal bore, a first sleeve axially movably mounted on said bore at one side of said slot, a feed screw mounted in said sleeve and forming a chamber in the forward portion of the sleeve facing the slot, said chamber being adapted to hold said specimen, a second sleeve axially movably mounted in said bore at the other side of said slot, a removable member in said second sleeve, said removable member being coaxial with said feed screw and having an end face with a recess facing said chamber, said recess having a depth corresponding to the thickness of the slice to be obtained, means for clamping said removable member in said second sleeve in a desired position and means for loosening said clamping means, two rings mounted on the exterior of said socket one at each side of the slot, at least one of said rings being axially movable on the socket, a blade holder and a blade, the slot in the socket being wider than the blade holder, and means for locking said rings at a distance equal to the thickness of the blade holder, whereby the blade holder will be guided during its reciprocating movement to cut a slice from said specimen pressed into said recess by said feed screw.

4. Microtome as defined in claim 3, wherein one of said rings has a flat upper portion and said blade holder is provided with a stop arranged to engage said fiat upper portion and to limit the downward movement of the blade holder.

5. An apparatus for slicing a specimen of organic tissue and the like, comprising, in combination, a rigid socket-like support member having a transverse slot therein, a first member carried in said support member at one side of said slot, said first member having a central bore, an axially movable feed element mounted in said bore and forming a chamber in the forward portion of the bore facing the slot, said chamber being adapted to hold said specimen, a sleeve member axially movably mounted in a bore in said support member at the other side of said slot, said sleeve member having a smooth interior portion, a second member carried in said smooth portion in axial alignment with the first member and having an end face with a recess facing said chamber, said recess being of a depth corresponding to the thickness of the slice to be obtained, means for locking said second member in position on said smooth portion of the sleeve member, said locking means comprising pressure jaws mounted in peripheral slots in the second member and a screw member cooperating with the interior surfaces of the jaws to move' the same radially upon turning of the screw and cutting means transversely movable into said slot to cut a slice from said specimen pressed into said recess by said feed element.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS Number 

